question was d. the union jack is em blematic of england, scottland and ireland and combines each cross. george of england, andrew of scotland and patrick of ireland. tha thanks to you for being part of my program this week. i'll see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." when those bombs exploded in boston, journalists faced an enormous challenge, finding out what happened a the boston marathon, who might be behind the attack, covering the dead and wounded and the victim's families. >> an explosion at the boston marathon. >> we've just gotten word of two explosions near the finish line of the boston marathon. >> and of all places, of all days, this was patriots day in boston. >> witnesses say it sounded like

thunder. two bombs went off as dozens of runners were crossing the finish line at the boston marathon today. >> but there was unfounded speculation and there were mistakes. the biggest blunder reports that boston police arrest ed a suspet in the case which turned out to be flat wrong. plus a report that the younger brother had been killed instead of captured after of that massive manhunt. and days of media chatter about who did it, why they did it that sometimes went too far. we'll turn our critical lens on the coverage of this awful attack pr several angles, including a talk with a reporter who was running in the marathon. i'm howard kurtz and this is "reliable sources." >> monday's terror attack put tremendous pressure on the media to cover a fast-moving and heart rending situation. for all the good reporting on the ground, there was also significant misreporting starting with what some sources were describing as another bombing.

>> a federal source said that there's been an explosion at the jfk library in dorchester. we don't know much more than that. >> we have a bit of a disagreement. the source for the word of an explosion at the jfk library, which is rather far from boylston, downtown boston, is the commissioner himself. >> we've just learned of yet a third bombing. this one at boston's jfk library. >> that incident turned out to be an unrelated fire. "the new york post" said 12 people had died, wrong, and police had a suspect in custody, wrong again. and there was speculation about who might be behind the attack based on zero evidence. >> the suspects range from international terrorists to lone wolf inspired by international terrorists to someone acting on their own on behalf of a domestic cause. >> people tend to be on the far

right, although that's not a good category. extremist, let's call them that. >> on wednesday cnn followed by fox news, the ap and the "boston globe" reported there had been an arrest in the case, but that story soon fell apart. >> investigators have identified a suspect. that's the word our local affiliate in boston is using. a suspect believed to be responsible for the boston marathon bombing and that an arrest is imminent. >> one of our sources from our national security contributor, one source says who tells me that an arrest has been made in the investigation. >> what we have been told is no arrest has been made. we've heard frankly conflicting reports from senior federal officials about whether they have, in fact, even identified anybody yet. >> fox news alert, it's being told to fox news that indeed an arrest has been made. an arrest has been made. we now have different law

enforcement sources telling us different things about whether an arrest has been made and other news organizations are receiving conflicting information. >> we're get. ing some conflicting reports about an arrest. >> i have three separate sources, two that are highly placed and close to the investigation, that have just told me that there's been no arrest and in fact, a suspect has not been identified by name yet. >> a this point, it it appears people who have been reliable sources in the past 48 hours were giving us inaccurate information or getting ahead of themselves. >> and on friday as the older suspect was killed in a police shootout and his younger brother captured in watertown, there were more misfires and mistakes. >> what we've been told is that the word is shots fired. that was the first information that came back here. the second was body found in a boat. many any event the telling word

here is body. body found in a boat. >> there was no body. the suspect was wounded, but alive. how should we grade the media's performance during had difficult week? joining us is eric wem pl. and joe concha and lauren ash burn. joe, we're covering no other subject today because of the importance of this story. how big a blunder was it for cnn to report there had been an arrest when, in fact, there was no arrest. >> it was a blunder that happened on wednesday, as we know, and other outlets also had the same report. the associated press, the blost on to globe, those outlets, it was a very big blunder. but let's analyze why. the reason why is there's so much competition out there right now. not just other cable news networks. tw

twitter is is that blitzing linebacker who is throwing the ball before he wants to. in other words, it's putting so much pressure on the media. we'll come back to that role in a minute. >> they had several sources saying there had been an arrest. that turned out to be wrong. >> nobody right now, i'm sure, feels worse than john king and fran townsend. it's not as if they wanted this happen. yes, it was a blunder. yes, it was bad. however, these are sources that they believe to be impeccable or otherwise they wouldn't have reported it. >> but relying on law enforcement sources, in my experience, it's like going back to the olympics bombing. he sued nbc and got settle ms. law enforcement sources are sometimes wrong. they want to make it appear that they are on top of case or put pressure on witnesses. >> which is why networks have

very strong anonymous sourcing policies. that has to go through editors, through producers. it has to go almost to the top. that's why we don't do it very often. >> we're reaching a point where news organizations need to say on the major points of a criminal investigation as when a suspect has been identified or arrested, the name of a suspect, they need to wait for absolutely official confirmation. either a press conference or a statement. >> but that's tough. >> if you go through these sources, you have law enforcement on the local level, state level and federal level. it's all a mismatch. >> it's really tough. take for example, when the bombing happened. 2:50 in the afternoon, the very first tweet went up on to twitter which said "holy blank, explosion." at 3:40 the boston police confirmed on twitter that there was an explosion. so if you're waiting --

>> obviously, you don't need n confirmation of the an ploegs took place. we can see that. >> let me come back to what happened on wednesday. this was a significant mistake that unfortunately marred what has been a solid week of coverage by cnn to examine cnn for a moment. you had a lot of boots on the ground and elsewhere. and the ratings have been huge so people are still tuning in. let's also point out like other cases, that report didn't slander anyone. it was just a story about an arrest that did not happen. my question is what if john king's sources had been right. what if he had gotten it it first. 20 medicines later organizations gotten it it and they announced there was an arrest. >> he would be a hero. >> i do not think he would be a hero. >> is that a good enough scoop to take the risk of the downside that you might be wrong? >> we're now mentioning the dark skin moment. he felt compelled to bring out the detail that the suspect was

dark skinned. he decided to spill that detail. i didn't see what possible use that was. >> king says he was simply repeating what law enforcement sources told him. now let's look at why there's so much attention on cnn. it was prominent and went on for 45 medicininutes to an hour. but as we mentioned, other networks got it it wrong but cnn got the most attention. >> because cnn, jeff said this earlier in the week. the spare tire in the car. so when a big news story breaks, let's go to cnn because they are the best at breaking news. they always have been. >> cnn promotes itself as the reporting channel. >> ever since the gulf war, this is where you turn when big news breaks. >> you aren't reading a newspaper because it's not out yet. you're looking online and on your feeds. it isn't as if that during the oklahoma city bombing when we

said it was terrorists. >> there was speculation it might have been middle east terrorists. >> and so i think that in this instance that it was something that happened that was then corrected as soon as the new information. >> it was corrected. some other cases we'll talk about, cnn owned up to the mistake and took responsibility. nbc's pete williams has been praised for an experienced beat reporter. on friday night as we saw earlier he relying on sources that there was a body on the boat. >> he said a body on the boat. >> that does not suggest somebody is alive. >> maybe because the guy who looked in boat saw somebody cringed. didn't know whether he was alive or dead. >> when you say body, that's a corpse. he also reported a fire on the boat. i don't know if that happened. >> i don't think it did, but there are conflicting reports.

>> he relied on sources. pete williams relied on sources. john king relied on sources. everybody went through the appropriate channels. the lesson here is that in live breaking news people are going to get it it wrong. >> what is the rush to put this information that is not been confirmed on the air? >> pressure. >> competitiveness. >> it's not just competitiveness. i say that that is wrong. as a reporter and a journalist, you want to deliver accurate information. that's your job. and you're not trying to always be first. yes, it has some perks that go along with it. >> nobody likes to be wrong. "new york post" has not apologized. i mentioned at the outset that 12 people are dead. then there was this cover "bag men." this is videos obtained. two guys who we now know are perfectly innocent bystanders.

just kind of strongly implied of it. >> your hear the editor saying we never said they were subpoensubpoena suspects. >> so much that one of these guys went to the police to try to clear his name. he was afraid to walk out his front door. this mistake is intolerable. >> it's almost as if we need to put this in a basket from the other things we're talking about. this is willful. this is willful, intentional attempt to stir whatever they want to stir. i don't know what it is, but it stinks. >> there needs to be ramifications. somebody has to call a lawyer and say you're getting sued for this. you can't put my face on the back of a newspaper that's one of the top newspapers in the country and implicated it's me. >> this is going to affect his future. >> because he might have resembled somebody.

>> "new york post" made a great case for journalism. >> i'm not going to go there. >> rupert murdoch has not apologized. he said on twitter "only our picks were those distributed by fbi and withdrawn when fbi changed directions." you can't withdraw something that's in print and on the newsstands. that's not an apology. >> if you screw up, say you're sorry. it's as simple as that. >> this is a screw up. this is willful attempt to sell newspapers on something flimsy and they knew it. so i think this is not a screw up. i think that's where we go wrong. do you not agree with that? >> i think it was deliberate and premeditated and not something based on a source that turned out to be wrong. it's like, hey, this will sell on the newsstand. as long as we don't say it's them, we're legally okay.

imagine this kid is your son. let me turn to the other tabloid. this was a gory scene. the part that we have circled there in yellow, which we briefly saw was where "the daily news" altered the photo. they were proud of that, but readers weren't told that the photograph was changed. >> you can't change a photograph. then just don't show the photo. there's a thousand other angles. pick another one and move on. >> we have a consensus on that point. >> "the daily news" didn't get hammered because of the other pap per. >> we're going to take a break. we'll talk about the speculation that took place. we have others a pecks of this boston bombing case and the media coverage. ♪

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friday and the younger tsarnaev was taken into custody, president obama had something to say about the reporting of the boston bombings. >> in this age of instant reporting, tweets and blogs, there's a temptation to latch on to any bit of information, sometimes to jump to conclusions. >> fbi earlier in the week had also complained about the inaccurate reporting. this is an instant where the government is criticizing the media. >> it's fun. and they are right. the fbi issued a smashing statement about the thing we were just talking about saying please check official channels. sometimes the government isn't too cooperative when the media knocks on their door as well. so that's a two-way street. >> and after the mistakes earlier in the week that we have talked about in the last segment, i thought i saw a note of caution creeping into these

discussions. with pulled some sound from different networks to illustrate what i'm talking about. >> a lot of this is conjecture and trying to piece together and figure out motivation. >> we should quickly point out that as we saw with newtown, people do crazy things. before we leap to any conclusions of a political motive -- >> at this point we have no reason to believe whether their religion or origin has anything to do with this. keep that in mind. >> is that the sound of journalists pulling back? >> if you landed on social media during that time, everybody was saying, please, don't report things that aren't true. twitter grew up during this crisis. it really showed that people didn't want to get it wrong this time. >> we'll talk more about that in the next segment. i also wanted to say we focused on the things that went wrong.

i think during this week there was a lot of good reporting. there was a lot of compassionate reporting. there were interviewing with eyewitnesss, interviews with people who were related to those who had been wounded. we ought to tip our ha to the fact that this is something that television can do very well. >> absolutely. the peek of that was diane sawyer. fox was in opinion mode still talking about speculation about the family. sawyer is on the phone with the guy who found the body in the boat. the description that was there, the fact that she let that guest go, i see a strap cut. then i see blood on the ground. then i open up the tarp and you felt like, wow, that could be me. you were so scared hearing that story because you're thinking this is a monster that put a bomb next to an 8-year-old kid and could detonate at any moment. that was journalism at its

finest. the fact that abc was able to get that guy on the phone, that was a shining moment. >> i understand the value of having fbi profilers and homeland security. but you're also filling air time. a lot of them went to speculation mode before we knew the identity. >> there was and i think you find a lot of anger that it was discussed earlier in the week. could it be symbolic, could it it be a right-wing thing. >> matthew started to say it's extremists. >> i think there's something there. if something happens on patriots day, i think you're licensed as a broadcaster to say could this have something to do with patriots day. >> what really makes me angry about this is these are analysts and contributors who have been sitting in the corner since the last tragedy, not on tv talking

about things. you don't see them anymore. so there's something for them to be able to contribute. what i like to see them contributing is not conjecture, it's not speculation, but it is this is what happened behind the scenes during 9/11. i was there. this could be happening. i like to know that stuff. i like to understand what the fbi and the police are doing. >> what about all the pieces that are starting to be written? the profile of the brothers. >> so sick of it. >> how did they turn radical? did the older brother influence the younger brother. >> does anybody remember 8-year-old martin richard? that was the 8-year-old boy who was blown up. all we're going to do now for the next week is focus on we will know more about these people than we know about our own relatives. we will be into their mind. >> i think we should. >> you have to remember the victims. >> i think we should remember

the victims. but we should know massive amounts about these two men. >> i had the same feeling after newtown and columbine that we are glorifying the people who do this. not saying good things about them, but such an intense focus that it takes the spotlight away from those who were killed and wounded and maimed. >> i don't think that's our consideration. we need to know as much about the people who commit aks of terror in this country as we possibly can. and i don't think there's any -- i don't think we should be worried about where the spotlight falls. we need to know about these people. >> i disagree and i said it before. we do need to worry about where the spotlight falls. the media have an immense power over the minds of the american people. this is what you see day in and day out. so you're focusing on negative, you're focusing on the bad boys. what about the other people? what about moving forward? what about issues? how can we prevent this?

>> one more positive that came out of this is the fact there's nowhere to hide. because the media is so prevale prevalent. it's hard to hide because pictures that used to be in a post office or newspaper now are everywhere. right after this, we talk about the role of twitter and other social media sites in the boston bombing. at tyco integrated security, we consider ourselves business optimizers. how? by building custom security solutions that integrate video, access control, fire and intrusion protection. all backed up with world-class monitoring centers, thousands of qualified technicians, and a personal passion to help protect your business. when your business is optimized like that, there's no stopping you. we are tyco integrated security. and we are sharper. everybody has different ideas, goals, appetite for risk. you can't say 'one size fits all'. it doesn't. that's crazy.

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twitter not only broke news of boston bombings but during the middle of night fire fight, that was one guy who had an exclusive. >> he said you can call me kitz. he started live tweeting and ta taking pictures of what was happening in that fire fight right in his neighborhood, right behind his house. he told us what was happening, who was there, there's a car, he was giving license plate numbers. he had the story. and this is just a guy who invented an iphone case where you can put your credit cards in it it. >> on friday night you saw a picture online posted by a guy.

>> he said he's a below average looking guy with a smoking hot wife. and he said -- he showed the picture. he was the first one to get it it. i saw it an instant after it was tweeted. right, wrong, why would a guy with a smoking hot wife have this picture? and i waited. half an hour later, cnn had it. >> so is twitter and other social media sites putting pressure on the media? after all, there are so many journalists in every newsroom. >> i brought this up about twitter being the blitzing linebacker. >> you brought it up as was it it putting undue pressure on those of us to do things differently. i would say it it opens up the dialogue. there's also the question of is this real. it opens up the dialogue to millions of people rather than just a small monopoly in the

news business. >> twitter is part of the news. >> let's take a moment. it's an information sharing site that's very popular. on readit, there was speculation about suspects. >> we can wonder whether the "new york post" would have ever had its terribly irresponsible cover if mot for readit. >> there was also a huge backlash on readit. i could see from people on readit. you go to these stories and you like the stories. they were swearing and saying they screwed up. readit, you can't be talking like this. so there were rational people on social media trying to calm down the posers. >> pull down the links to this

person. please pull down all the links. had person is innocent. >> that's a very fascinating development. when twitter and facebook and readit surged in popularity, there was a lot of i don't believe what average folks are doing. we really have our trust in the mainstream media. now it seems like there were these voices of restraint restraining people on social media and calling out the mainstream media for things like "the new york post" cover. >> i wouldn't take with issue with what joe said, but what i saw on twitter on the day of the attacks was a tremendous, kind of a mass of people, critical mass of people saying stop. yellow light. >> i was one of those guys. i woke up at 2:00 a.m. on friday morning. the one. status update on facebook said i think we got these guys. i could go to tv, but i'm just going o to go on twitter.

then i went to television. that felt so slow. it was like one anchor with one guest and one picture. on twitter you have dozens of perspectives and dozens of voices. >> it's the greek chorus of our day. so had person from this background is saying this. here comes this picture. so for this jgeneration where w are moving so fast, the mcdonald's generation, it becomes a tool for our add minds. >> it is the greek chorus as valuable as it can be also difficult to trust because it is so many voices. i like the fact that the mainstream media being critiqued. >> do you think everything you read on twitter is real? >> no. >> so people come to this sixth network knowing that these aren't journalists. they don't have to champion the first amendment. they are people, real people on the ground, eyewitness reporters. >> instant gratification.

tv at certain moments make s it feel like you're waiting for a table at a restaurant. every 30 seconds on twitter, you had a new report. the most important was links to police scanners. to listen to the police scanners, that was realtime stuff. >> that's where bad information comes. a local news reporter had a police scanner in her house. it's awful. you cannot report what you hear on police scanners. >> clearly what has happened is it's giving us the raw and unfillered reports. sometimes right, sometimes wrong. thanks very much for coming by this sunday morning. we'll talk more about the boston bombings in a moment. we'll go to boston to talk to a commentator and talk about the local and national coverage and how it looks in a moment. le a sr and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed: the official retirement age.

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our critique of coverage of the boston bombings this week takes us to boston, massachusetts. joining us is the host of "under the radar requests." welcome. what's it been like?

to live there and have all these anchors parachute in to do their broadcasts and have national media and to have much of the city locked down while you are trying to work and do your job? >> well, i think the lockdown part is what's different. this is a world class city so we have had hordes of media from all around the world for many other events including the boston marathon. but the lockdown part is very different here. and i was very proud of the way local television folks handle a situation that they had never handled before. that's the difference. >> talk a little bit about local tv. for example, during that night when there was the shootout with police that killed the older tsarnaev brother, local tv made all over that. "the boston globe" has been working 24/7. talk about the local approach to what is obviously a national and

international story. >> here's what made meso proud. i thought not only -- this was a moment when local folks proved what community means. they know this community. they knew the streets, they knew where to get information about the people. and all along the way, they were careful to say this is what we know now. and now we're updating you to this point. it's something we're not sure about, they said that as well. no excuses. they made no excuses. they just went straight for telling people what they did know, what they didn't know. if a fast-moving situation, i thought they were brilliant. some of them did an excellent job. >> this is when journalists earn their combat pay. we talked earlier in the program -- go ahead. >> what i wanted to add. i was with a group of friends not in business last night. i asked what they thought about the coverage. these are people who keep up

with news and information. what they most appreciated was a lack of hyping what was already a heightened situation. they said inform me, don't scare me. that was the highest compliment they could give local reporters here in town and i have to agree. >> when there's a big story, there's no need to hype and overdramatize, you can just tell the story. earlier we talked about the mistake made by cnn, fox news, and others including "the boston globe" in reporting there was an arrest when there had not been. john king relaying from sources said the person who was being arrested who obviously there was no such person, but that information was a dark-skinned person. that enlisted a lot of comment. what was your take on that? >> it it should have enlisted a lot of comment. somebody as skilled and knowledgeable as john king not to put that information out if that's the only descripter you

had. that could be a part of a context of a lot of other descriptioners. >> is that the case even if it was true? if the story was solid, there was an arrest, there was a dark-skinned person? you're saying it's too broad. >> it's too broad. the point of journalism is to be absolutely accurate. in a context, that's just one single fact. that tells me nothing. what does that mean? there's a billion dark-skinned people. and in a city with a fractured racial history that boston has, you don't need to put that out. that was just -- i thought that was irresponsible and i was disappointed. >> john king tweeted this. he says source of that description was a senior government official and i asked are you sure, but i'm responsible. let me close by asking you about the role of the local journalists again. is it different -- you used the

word community. is it it different when people are reporting on their friends, neighbor. s, people ran in the marathon. is there an extra level of sensitivity of passion of commitment when it's in your city? >> i don't know if it's a different level of commitment more than you know the town. you know the streets. i know where 67 franklin street is in watertown. this is two miles from my house. so all the places people are talking about, you know it it and you know what it means for people trying to glo door to door. you know where the brothers lived. you know that there's a mosque around the corner. as one of my colleagues went in and said have you ever seen these guys before. that's the kind of intimate information that puts you ahead, allows you to put the information that's coming in very fast in a context without hyping. because you know what's real and what's connected. >> thanks very much for joining

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boston for the marathon. joining me is christine brennan, sports columnist for "usa today" and a contributor to abc. this was one of the instances where sports reporters become breaking news reporters. tough transition? >> yes, although i think sports reporters are uniquely ready for that challenge. think of the deadlines every night as election night for a sports section. it doesn't surprise me many colleagues and others i don't know did such a terrific job on the spot. it's something new every day. this case you don't expect this kind of tragedy. when it happens, you're ready to do it. >> certainly the adrenaline and the filing quickly and all of that quicks in. but i'm sure nobody was expecting to be talking to wounded bystanders and eyewitnes eyewitnesss. it's not like this hasn't happened before. famously the 1972 olympics. >> yes that was a story developing on tv.

i remember i was going to start school the next day. i was not covering the 1972 olympics. i was going into ninth grade the next day. i remember that. that to me was riveting because that was before cnn and espn to see that play out on your tv set from across the world. then the atlanta olympics in 1996. i was in my hotel room, right next to the olympic park. i heard the explosion and looked out thinking it might be part of a band's act, but within a moment i saw all the police cars and columns of emergency vehicles. the sound i heard on my tv with the boston bombings when i could see the videotape on monday, that sound was the exact sound i heard out my window in atlanta in 19 96. >> that constant replaying of the bombing maybe was too much of that. but this is not a one-day story for organizations. "sports illustrated," for example, has the boston bombing

on the cover. we can put that up there. part of that. espn has been covering the news developments. so this was sort of emerging in the two cultures. >> no surprise to me "the boston globe" photographers who took the pictures, another great picture right inside the magazine. they are so well trained just because things happen. think of a football game. i'm not comparing by any means the tragedy. terrible. but you are moving around the field, a golf tournament, they are so ready with so much equipment that i'm sure when this happens, you run out and do this and capture this moment for posterity. >> the boston marathon, like events of its kind, is a wide open situation. 27,000 people from around the

country run. this is not immune from terrorism. we have known it, but we have seen it here and see the shot of the running before the bombing. will this change the nature of future sporting events? >> since 1984. >> but i don see how you role off new york or boston. >> 26 miles, 385 yards. it's surprising to me that this kind of thing hasn't happened somewhere before. golf tournaments where you go for miles around a golf course, the fans are right next to the athletes. football, the arenas and stadiums can be secured in a different way. but we don't want to stop having marathons. and they are such a celebration of a city as well as rt sports. >> a celebration of a city and the way that boston responded to this tragedy. thanks very much for stop iping

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off and you had to talk to people going through this traumatic event. >> i think as a journalist you immediately shift in to reporter mode. i realized that this was a huge story. it would dominate the news all week and the emotions of the people in the crowd were confused and dazed by what was taking place. sirens everywhere. the crime scene kept expanding and they kept pushing us back. my car was within the crime scene. so i was caught off of my car ultimately. >> and your iphone charger. >> the second most essential weapon as journalists. >> this kind of story is not outside of the realm of your experience. you have written about national security, once covered the pentagon. you certainly didn't plan to do it that day. >> oh, yeah. i remember explosions from iraq.

these sounded like exactly the same things. they were the same things. in fact, i wrote a piece about a group of military runners and one made the point, this is an ied. this is what soldiers have been facing since 2002. civilians and runners faced. >> saw that with the leg injuries. the fak you were part of the marathon experience and you were in this moment of tragedy how did that change that you approached your story opposed if you had flown in a few hours earlier. >> it made me interested in how marathon runners were processing these events. having run the race, having run the race a bunch of times and identified with the traditional and lore of the boston marathon. i was interesting how this was affecting people's marathon experience. it is getting up there, running the race, celebrating after wards and i was struck by what

an international stlent was. i interviewed a guy from germany, austria, mexico. people all over the world. i'm always fascinated what this did to their experience. >> with half a minute you have a big piece in the "washington post" today. you talk about how runners on some level are nuts and you have to hesitation about doing this again. >> no, i have to do it again. i think nextier's boston marathon will be the biggest e one. ever will want to do it to show we are not stopping. >> to prove ta terrorists cannot take the joy out of this event. >> to make a statement. saying we are running and nobody is taking the boston marathon away. >> hope it has a better outcome. thank you very much for joining us. that's it for this edition of "reliable sources" if you missed part of the program go to ie tunes and search for reliable sources. we are back on the